Spis punktów szlaku

Some history

The village of Tychy, first mentioned in historical sources in 1467, for several centuries belonged to the lords of Pszczyna. The Promnitz and Anhalt families erected here a brick hunting lodge (hence a hunting horn in the municipal coat of arms of Tychy), and in the 19th century the Hochbergs expanded the old brewery, for which the city has been famous ever since. Before World War II, Tychy had a population of 11,000 and was a very well-managed and growing commune. A recreation centre with an open swimming pool was established, which attracted also the residents of the nearby city of Katowice; there was a hospital, a cinema, a gasworks, four elementary schools and an orphanage. Two breweries and a cellulose factory operated in the area. There was a station on the railway line between Katowice and Bielsko, an important window on the world, enabling the residents to commute to work in the nearby towns. In 1934 Tychy was granted partial municipal rights, which were lost by the commune in 1945.

The situation was rapidly changed in the year 1950. On 4th October 1950, the Government Executives passed a resolution on development of Tychy. The resolution reads: “During the six-year plan expand the city of Tychy to equal the cities with population of about 30,000 [...]. In the long-term plan, provide for further expansion of Tychy to match cities of 100,000 inhabitants, taking into account transfer of certain central functions in relation to the Central Coal Basin to relieve Katowice.” A month later, a regulation was issued on granting Tychy full municipal rights as of 1st January 1951.

A great building began.

The first housing estate of New Tychy was designed by Tadeusz Teodorowicz-Todorowski, a designer associated with the Silesian University of Technology. The complex, named as the “A” estate, was erected on the grounds of the former estate of the Duke of Pless, adjacent to the railway station. When the construction works were already in progress in the “A” estate, a contest for the overall urban concept of the new city of Tychy was announced. The competition was won by a team of architects from Warsaw, working under the direction of Kazimierz Wejchert and Hanna Adamczewska (later Adamczewska-Wejchert). The Wejcherts were appointed as the general designers of the city.

For several years, the city was called New Tychy (Polish: Nowe Tychy, to stress a new period in the city’s history), although technically this was never sanctioned by any regulation. However, such a name was commonly used by officials, journalists, residents; such a name appeared on letters. There was also Miastoprojekt Nowe Tychy, the design studio of New Tychy. At the end of the 1960s the term “New” in the name of the city was eventually abandoned.

The young city was intensively developing. Next housing estates were created, kindergartens, schools, cultural institutions, public buildings were built, infrastructure was developing. Tychy became a symbol of a modern city. Families from neighbouring towns and from remote parts of Poland, also from the former Eastern Borderlands, came here in search of their own place to live.

The city did not, however, arise in the desert - it was built in the vicinity of the old village, on grounds of landholders from the localities of Tychy and Paprocany. Their fields and lands, where their houses were built, were needed for residential areas, roads and railway lines. Expropriations took place, very painful for many families. The new city therefore changed, often dramatically, the lives of many old Tychy families. But on the other hand, the building process brought job opportunities.

Conflicts got softened with time. The necessity and the need for co-operation were stronger than the initial animosities. The new emerging community gave an opportunity for mutual observations, for getting accustomed to otherness, to diversity. That diversity has been accepted as a peculiar feature of the city.

The city is therefore characterized by the mosaic multi-constituent composition of the community and the inhabitants’ developed ability to live together and interact - in spite of differences in regional origin and different cultural traditions, cherished in their families. The residents of Tychy are connected by common experience: participation of the great construction, which progressed before their eyes. They witnessed creation of successive estates, buildings, parks. They planted many trees and ordered a lot of areas for lawns during the erstwhile Sunday community service.